The Self as the “Mittelpunkt”, the World as the “Hauptperson”. The “Super-Personal” Autobiography of Stefan Zweig

Writing European Lives. Stefan Zweig as a Biographer of Verhaeren, Rolland and Erasmus

“…as critics have taken note, Die Welt von Gestern repeats this global narrative structure. 72 Zweig equally replicates the words and images of his erasmus book, as for example, in the frequently quoted passage from the preface, where he recounts -resuming the history of two subsequent World Wars -that he experienced several 'volcanic shocks' and 'earthquakes' in one lifetime: 'all the pale horses of the apocalypse have stormed through my life [..] i have been a defenceless, helpless witness of the unimaginable relapse of mankind into what was believed to be long-forgotten barbarism'. 73 The final chapter of Zweig's memoir, in which he documents his darkest hour in wartime, comes close to his description of erasmus' defeat, when 'the days of supranational community [were gone]; even latin, the language of a united europe, the language of erasmus' heart, was dead' (234-235).…”